OLX critical malfunction - no help from BB Support

Patty Driscoll 3

I have set up an OLX event registration form, created an event record in NXT, added my list of invitees to the event record and used NXT marketing to send the evite to my list with the link to the OLX registration form (as recommended in RE NXT training webinar).. Now when I download the OLX registrations though, instead of updating the existing invitee participant records in the event, it creates a whole new duplicate participant record for the registration. All BB support did was confirm that this is what happens! How have any of you worked around this? Manually delete all the duplicates? Not add your invitee list to the event record at all and only add the registered people via OLX download? Any help on this would be appreciated! Thanks, Patty

Austen Brown

Hi Patty Driscoll‍ - I am sorry you are discovering this mid-event registration! OLX will only link things together during the transaction download if there is an option to do that within the download window, as participant record is not an option OLX will add new ones to the event record in your system.


In regards to how you clean this up - I would recommend that you keep the OLX added participant record especially if you are asking additional questions on your form (as those will be saved as participant attributes). Personally, I wait until the event is over to make changes to participant records - i.e. marking who attended the event, linking registrations/donations to the participant record, etc. If you need to do this in bulk, it can be accomplished through the Import feature via Database view.


If you haven't already check out the OLX Idea Bank / RE NXT Idea Bank and make sure this is listed as an idea.

Samantha McGuin

Hi Patty,


I know you are mid-event, but I did want to mention for future events that the new NXT Event Registration Form (created from within the Event record in webview) does update existing participant records if you've pre-loaded your participants to the event. This is based on the system auto-matching the registrant's incoming info to the constituent information based on a match on Last name + Email address or phone number. Once the registrant matches, they system will update the existing participant record with a new RSVP Status of "Attending" with an RSVP date when the form was submitted.


Thanks,


Samantha McGuin

Principal Product Manager

Blackbaud

Patty Driscoll 3

Thanks Samantha - that's a relief that this issue has been corrected in the new NXT registration forms! Unfortunately we don't have access to those yet in Canada but I'll look forward to this time consuming situation getting resolved once we can move to that.

Bernard Nemis

Hi, Patty. I've had that issue this week. I vaguely remember not having that issue with our events pre-pandemic. But because of the break from events last year, I forgot what I did when creating events to avoid it. But was pretty sure duplicates didn't occur before.

Let's say you have a golf tournament and you are offering the following registration options: Single Golfer, Double, Threesome, Foursome. John Doe registered as a Single Golfer. When you process his registration, your Participation Field populates with Single Golfer (I am not sure why the registration unit gets added to your Participation Field but that's another story). After two days, John Doe decides to register again for his friends and this time, registers as Threesome. The system now has to add another registration entry to the event because it has a different Participation Field value. It should not override the first registration entry, thus creating a second entry. The same principle applies in avoiding duplicates.

Just keep the Participation field blank for the preloaded names. That way, when someone RSVPs and chooses one of the participation options in your form, it just populates the blank field. The duplication happens when the system thinks the Participation in the preloaded entry is different from the Participation in the RSVP entry, thus creating a new entry. Actually, it wouldn't matter if they are actually the same, you have to leave the Participation blank in the preload to make it work. Then the system will just automatically populate the field with the option picked by the registrant.

Hope this helps. ")

Patty Driscoll 3

Thanks so much Bernard - leaving the participation type blank when adding the participant record to the event at the point of sending invitations, makes the whole process of downloading online registrations from OLX function perfectly! It updated the participation and registration status without creating a duplicate. I can't believe that this issue went through umpteen people in BB support and they never came up with this solution - they just said that this was how it functioned and yes it would create duplicates if the participant had already been added to the event as an invitee but hadn't registered yet.

Michele Little

Hi Samantha - I'm using NXT Events Registration form and pre-loaded invitees. I registered and despite the last name and email being an exact match, they are duplicate records. Is there anything they needs to be set-up in advance to ensure that people who register on the form are matched with the pre-loaded invitees?

Samantha McGuin

Hi Michele,


There's a bit more detail that I didn't add in my original post on matching. We match on:



If you are finding that email address and last name are matches, then usually we find that the first name was incorrect (ex: record has "David" and registrant entered "Dave." Another common example that will throw a duplicate is if multiple matches are found. At this time we are not making an assumption that in a multiple match situation, that a matching name already on the event would be "the match." Typically this happens when you've got data that needs to be cleaned up.


In the event that we did create a duplicate, the best way to manage this is through Tools --> Data health. By merging the duplicate that was created with the intended record here, you will be able to merge the registration into the record you already have added as a participant on your event.


We have some enhancements to both the matching algorithm and the duplicate handling process coming later this year as we continue to refine this process based on customer feedback. Feel free to reach out to me at samantha.mcguin@blackbaud.com if you want to discuss further!


Thanks,

Samantha McGuin

Principal Product Manager

Blackbaud

Aldera Chisholm 2

Patty, I agree! I spent a couple of hours with support pre-pandemic to try to figure out how to make this work and they just kept telling me that the system was working as intended and that I shouldn't upload invitees into the event to avoid this happening. I'm glad you've found a workaround, I'll try it for our Zoom Townhall we are doing next month!

Patty Driscoll 3

Thanks to Bernard for that workaround!

Bernard Nemis

Thanks, Patty. I think, as BB RE (NXT) users, it is also our job now to be QAs for the product. If we believe in the system, then we have to accept that it is not perfect, BUT there is always a way to improve it. For us to find faulty function in RE means we too are growing, because we are expanding the way we use it.

With that said… I have a new problem and hoping someone can help. ")

We have solved the duplication issue of the main registrant (when his/her name has been preloaded in the event). BUT… what about the guests. Let's say Mark Green's name was preloaded in the Golf Tournament. Instead of registering himself, he was registered by John Doe as one of his guests (part of the foursome). The system has not found a way to search the preloaded name even if you connect the guest with his constituent record.

This is now my issue with an event we hosted for our current parents (ie. husband and wife preloaded, wife registers for both, with husband being her guest).

I hope someone can help and post a workaround.

Thank you!

Patty Driscoll 3

We are also having this issue with guests. The system doesn't search for a match on the guest record and I haven't found a way of making these linkages that isn't totally manual - needless to say a big time commitment for a large event! Has anyone else come up with a solution that isn't so labor intensive?